Hispanic advertising is just fine, thank you

By Court Stroud

This article is part of an ongoing Media Life series entitled “Catching the next big wave: Hispanic media.” You can read previous stories by clicking here.

After a much-heralded launch in late 2014, Commonground/MGS abruptly closed down last week, putting some 300 employees out on the street.

It came as a shock.

A merger that included MGSCOMM and the Vidal Partnership, two big names in Hispanic media, Commonground/MGS was ranked the sixth-largest Latino agency in billings. It came just months after one of the best-known Latino agencies, Bromley Communications, shuttered after 34 years.

And so the talk began: The bells are tolling for Hispanic ad agencies.

That’s simply not true. Quite the opposite.

If a trio of your neighbors kick the bucket, you can’t rationally claim everyone you know will perish.

Here is what is happening. Hispanic media is going through huge changes as it joins the ranks of mainstream media.

As it does so, the role of the Hispanic agency is changing as well—and for the good.

Some background: For most of the U.S. Hispanic market’s 50-year history, Hispanic agencies existed alongside general market agencies on a separate but equal basis. Spanish-language media – whether print, radio or TV – needed Spanish-language ad agencies to create copy. They also bought the media. General market agencies had neither the desire nor the staff to do either.

But much as desegregation brought the entire mosaic of American children together in classrooms, the total market movement in media—the idea of advertising reaching out to all sectors of society—has desegregated American marketing.

Latinos have entered the mainstream – and so has Hispanic media, snapping up larger and larger shares of clients’ ad budgets.

One outcome is that much of the buying of Hispanic media has now moved to the global advertising holding companies-WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic, Dentsu-Aegis, etc.

That only makes sense. Media has become a commodity buy, and these giants have invested princely sums to create efficient media buying and planning machines. To maximize profits, these worldwide networks set out to court and win clients’ Spanish-language media budgets.

True, the loss of media buying has been tough on independent Hispanic shops, but it’s been good overall for the state of multicultural advertising. Reaching Hispanics is no longer an afterthought but an essential part of every marketing mix.

What it’s left Hispanic agencies is a role they’re particularly good at: creative.

And creative can never be commoditized.

Alex López Negrete, founder of the agency bearing his name, talks about the “secret handshake.”

The secret handshake is a sense of the Hispanic consumer that’s crucial for crafting smart ad copy, and it comes from understanding the cultural, linguistic and generational nuances that connect with Hispanic consumers, whether the target message is in Spanish or English.

The secret handshake is the not so secret weapon of successful Hispanic agencies. It belongs to them. It is their calling.

For evidence of the vibrancy of Hispanic advertising, look no further than the great year the industry had at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Seven agencies took home 18 awards, including a Grand Prix for Miami-based agency The Community. D exposito & Partners was honored as Agency of the Year by the Advertising Education Foundation, the first Latino shop to receive the award.

This past fall the Smithsonian Museum honored the legacy of Hispanic advertising, inducting into its archives campaigns and artifacts from Zubi Advertising, Dieste, López Negrete and Orcí.

Yes, Commonground/MGS may have closed and Bromley is no more, but Hispanic agencies are more vibrant than ever, their creative more in demand than ever.

So the sounds you hear are bells ringing in celebration, not mourning, as U.S. Hispanic advertising ushers in a new golden age.

Court Stroud is a writer and a longtime media executive who has worked for companies such as Univision, Telemundo and several digital startups. He most recently served as Azteca America’s EVP of network sales and digital. Stroud holds degrees from UT-Austin and the Harvard Business School. Follow him on Twitter: @CourtStroudNYC